Statement of intent

evab_2

Best wishes for the car and your brother!

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

I want to thank you and complain at the same time - no button for that as yet!!!

Thank you - as a MFW complete beginner (but not too bad a saving), I enjoyed reading your journey and picked up some tips along the way. Nice to read about someone who's at/nearly at their MFW destination.

Complaint - I burnt my lunch under the grill, thankfully had kitchen window open instead of extractor fan on!

setmefree2

evab wrote: »

Best wishes for the car and your brother!

from me too.

StuartGMC

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

I want to thank you and complain at the same time - no button for that as yet!!!

Thank you - as a MFW complete beginner (but not too bad a saving), I enjoyed reading your journey and picked up some tips along the way. Nice to read about someone who's at/nearly at their MFW destination.

Complaint - I burnt my lunch under the grill, thankfully had kitchen window open instead of extractor fan on!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:now that wasn't very MSE was it, unless of course you still ate it? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Welcome and it's good to hear that the past year of my ramblings here have been sufficiently interesting to have you reading through in detail.

Will you be posting a diary yet, or getting your data together first?

I_should_be_rich_2

Hi Stuart,
Just popped in to say 'Hi' and thanks for the spreadsheet (which I have yet to study and decipher - hopefully this weekend! ).

Haven't read all your thread yet, but your summary highlights on the first page is great!!

StuartGMC

Time for a bit of an update MSE-wise.

Energy consumption for past two weeks; just read the meters and submitted the readings which means the direct debit remains very close to consumption even though BG bill quarterly.

Gas of course is reducing with the warmer weather as one would expect giving an average daily consumption since early October of 46.25kWh.

Electricity however has gone up in the last two weeks compared to the previous two; unfortunately this would seem to relate to me being abroad in the earlier period and here in the past two weeks (plus a bank holiday weekend)....
Day rate average since October 13.81kWh per day
Night rate 2.84kWh per day.

As you know we've had a fair few extra costs since January and it's felt like we have been spending only on bills and not on some enjoyment. So, we've booked to go to York for a couple of nights in the Novotel for the three of us; cheaper hotels were on offer but TripAdvisor reviews raised concerns on our part. OH has cashed in some Tesco clubcard points for days out vouchers and some restaurant ones, so it should be a balance of a bit of luxury and some good value items too. DD was worried when I mentioned an hotel without a pool, but the reviews were quite bad so we haven't taken that small hotel. Probably do North York Moors Railway on the day up then walk the city the second day plus Jorvik centre etc.

DD is about to depart on her school trip away for a week, so OH and I will incur some extra spend on a night out I think. She is also going through a growth spurt so two new pairs of shoes plus clothing today. In addition, she will move up to secondary education in September so that requires new uniforms etc in the summer too. You'll be pleased to hear I don't have a separate page for detailing the cost of our lovely DD (just in case you thought I was that bad!).

All this despite this month's credit card bill presently sitting at £7150 :eek:
This includes some £3600 for the holiday, £2500 of expenses for work, plus the £335 for the car. So actually the residual amount is typical spend in a low month. This will move us back to about 90% offset in June as we of course pay the card in full. I hope then that July and August will be better months as we won't save anything this month I fear, although we have my car insurance end of this month too.

I certainly feel the cash is flowing in the wrong direction at the moment but in contrast to the position of many losing jobs etc I shouldn't feel so bad about it

On a lighter note I am just 4miles off getting Silver Elite status on Continental Airlines, so, as there were 500miles up for signing to e-Rewards and then their points can be converted to miles I thought I'd give it a go.

We have a family wedding to attend in September so need to get venue details so we can try to book accommodation; if it is near a Marriott we may well use my points for that. Still haven't applied for their credit card, but may do so even though it will probably only give us a free weekend in a 4* every couple of years. Just seems the NatWest Yourpoints don't leverage much from easyJet etc.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Hi

You're going to York, it's a lovely place. I know you want to treat yourself to some enjoyment but if you get MSE withdrawal symptoms I'd recommend a walk round the wall if its nice weather and a visit to the National Railway Museum (free) which is ace.

MRN

StuartGMC

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

You're going to York, it's a lovely place. I know you want to treat yourself to some enjoyment but if you get MSE withdrawal symptoms I'd recommend a walk round the wall if its nice weather and a visit to the National Railway Museum (free) which is ace.MRN

Thanks; yes with the combination of converting Tesco vouchers for Days Out vouchers and restaurant vouchers, we should get away with little spend in the city. We'll do Brodsworth Hall & Gardens on return journey as we're English Heritage members.

So NYMR will be the "day out we have to pay for". Agree NRM is great, but, think OH and DD will have had sufficient steam at NYMR!

StuartGMC

I've just seen that the FCO has lifted the restriction on travel to Mexico. This is good news as OH can now arrange her travel insurance, and let's hope we can take the holiday as planned in the summer :j

Hopefully for the northern hemisphere H1N1 will reduce during the summer but I assume in the south it may increase during their winter :think:

RosieTiger

Stuart,
great stuff, hope everything works out fine for Mexico for all the GMC's !